The Security Service of Ukraine exposed the management of a Ukrainian holding company and their accomplices, who helped the Russian Federation circumvent sanctions on energy exports and build a liquefied gas production plant in the Rostov region.
Points of attention
- Ukrainian holding company managers were detained for collaborating with Russia in designing a gas processing plant to bypass energy export sanctions.
- Proceeds from the shadow trade at the Russian liquefied gas production plant were allegedly used to fund the war in Ukraine.
- Detained Ukrainian collaborators could face up to 12 years in prison with property confiscation for aiding an aggressor state.
- The SBU uncovered the involvement of equipment developers and design engineers in constructing the Russian plant, leading to charges under the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
- A Russian collaborator, a former junior inspector of a local pre-trial detention center who defected to the Russian side and supported the invaders, was also detained.
SSU detained a group of occupiers: they helped build a gas processing plant in Rostov
According to the case materials, during 2023-2024, the defendants participated in the construction of a port-side liquefied gas production plant in the Rostov region of Russia. The products manufactured at this enterprise were loaded onto tankers of the "shadow fleet of the Russian Federation" and secretly sold in various parts of the world.
According to available data, Moscow directed most of the profits from shadow trade to finance the war in Ukraine.
As a result of comprehensive measures in the Kyiv region, the SSU detained an equipment developer and a design engineer of the holding company, who participated in the construction of a Russian plant.
It is documented how both defendants developed all the design documentation for the production facility and its technological capacities.
Officials transferred finished developments to Russian customers through a co-owner of a Ukrainian holding located in the temporarily occupied territory of the Donetsk region.
According to the case materials, he owns five companies in Shakhty, Rostov Oblast, Russia, which supply equipment to gas stations of the sanctioned corporations Gazprom and Lukoil.
In addition, his accomplice was detained in the Poltava region, who has his own network of gas stations in the temporarily occupied part of the territory in eastern Ukraine and refuels the military equipment of the invaders.
According to the Kyiv City Prosecutor's Office, the equipment developer and design engineer, as well as the entrepreneur, were charged with aiding an aggressor state under Part 1 of Article 111-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. They face up to 12 years in prison with confiscation of property.
Suspicion was also declared in absentia against the co-owner of the holding, who lives in the Russian Federation, and the director of the gas station network, who lives in the temporarily occupied part of the Donetsk region.
The three suspects were remanded in custody as a preventive measure.
What is known about the detained Russian collaborator?
The Security Service of Ukraine, together with the State Bureau of Investigation, conducted an operation in Kherson, which resulted in the detention of another traitor who collaborated with the occupiers.
As noted, the detainee is a junior inspector of the local pre-trial detention center who defected to the Russian side during the temporary occupation.
At the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion, he supported the invaders and received a position as a guard in a torture chamber set up in the building of the captured pre-trial detention center.
His responsibilities included:
guarding the cells where local residents, mostly members of the resistance movement, were held;
attracting acquaintances to cooperate with the occupiers, promising them "work" in a Russian "institution" with payment in rubles and guarantees of "loyalty" from the aggressor.
After the liberation of Kherson, the traitor tried to hide, constantly changing his place of residence. However, law enforcement officers located him and detained him.
